Distance regulating systems of the type mentioned at the outset are generally known. Corresponding distance regulating systems are frequently described also as distance regulating or adaptive cruise controls. Known systems measure the distance to a motor vehicle travelling ahead and keep a motor vehicle equipped with such at a certain distance to the former. The distance can depend on the speed. When the vehicle travelling ahead speeds away and the distance between the two motor vehicles increases because of this, the distance regulating system accelerates the motor vehicle with a preset acceleration. The acceleration is maintained until a preset speed is reached.
DE 10 2005 027 655 A1 describes a driver assistance system with an interface to a navigation system. The drive assistance system is an autonomous cruise control (ACC) system which is designed in order to adjust the own motor vehicle in longitudinal direction upon disappearance of a reference vehicle travelling ahead so that the speed of the motor vehicle is suitably adapted to the upcoming route. The ACC system in this case receives information regarding the route in particular the elevation profile from the navigation system of the motor vehicle.
Disadvantageous in the known methods is that these are optimized to straight roads with respect to the selected longitudinal acceleration. On winding routes, the longitudinal acceleration of the motor vehicle in conjunction with the transverse acceleration can result in high total accelerations.